Amazon Acquires UK-Based Online Book Retailer The Book Depository For International Expansion

Amazon is acquiring one of its competitors today, announcing that the e-commerce giant has bought The Book Depository International. The Book Depository is a UK-based online bookseller offering over six million books for delivery worldwide. Financial terms of the deal are not disclosed.

So why buy this company? The Book Depository, is one of the fastest growing booksellers in Europe. The retailer has over a million customers and also comes with a Dodo Press imprint and a fulfillment centre in Gloucester, UK. The company ships its books free of charge, worldwide, to over 100 countries.

Amazon currently offers international sites in Germany, Japan, Austria, Canada, China, France, the UK and also has a Spanish-site for Spanish-speaking countries. But the company no doubt wants to expand beyond these countries and The Book Depository expands its reach with an established customer base in Europe and a fulfillment center.

It’s unclear from the release if The Book Depository will become an Amazon-owned but independent site or if will be folded into the Amazon platform.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Amazon making similar moves in other countries. We know that the company is looking to expand to India, and an acquisition of Flipkart, the current Amazon of India, would make sense.